Power Distribution Protection System Design with Momentary Interruption Consideration

An objective of protection system design is to support the system to serve its customers with highly reliable and low-cost power supply. In this paper, a radial distribution protection system design is formulated as a binary integer programming problem to identify number, types, and locations of the protective devices in order to optimize system total cost. The formulated problem takes into account not only the reliability of system components' but also the cost of utility investment and customer interruption, which comprises permanent and momentary interruption. The proposed method has been tested with an actual system with satisfactory results, from which it clearly shows the necessity of the inclusion of the customer interruption cost into the design problem. Copyright © 2009 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Properties of natural rubber filled with untreated and treated spent coffee grounds

This work studied the properties of spent coffee ground (SCG) filled natural rubber (NR). The SCG was initially characterized by various techniques, prior to being added into rubber. Results revealed that SCG had relatively large particle size with very low specific surface area. It is mainly composed of organic compounds (such as protein, fatty acid, cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin) with small quantity of inorganic substances (oxides of potassium, silicon, magnesium, calcium, and phosphorous). The incorporation of SCG in NR gave relatively low reinforcement and tended to retard vulcanization due to the presence of hydroxyl groups on the SCG surface. In addition to untreated SCG, reinforcement of SCG treated by liquid epoxidized natural rubber (LENR) and bis ‐ ( 3‐ triethoxysilylpropyl) tetrasulfide (TESPT) was investigated. Improvement of rubber properties was observed when SCG surface was treated. Overall, TESPT‐treated SCG gave the rubber with the highest mechanical properties, followed by LENR‐treated SCG and untreated SCG, respectively. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2018 , 135, 46060.     

Improvement of biodiesel’s policy in Thailand

Thailand’s economy is growing rapidly as seen in terms of GDP; according to Thailand is a developing country. So, in industrial sector and logistics are high cost. Around 36% of diesel is spent on the transportation sector, and the amount of oil imported is going up. The Thai government had launched a master plan to increase the stability of the energy situation.

This paper studied the biodiesel policy in Thailand. Although the Thai government had launched a plan 8 years back, the plan could not meet its expected target. The policy was then extended to a 15-year plan. The goal is changed, using more biodiesel: 492.75 million liters in 2008 compared with 1642.5 million liters in 2022. The problems are politics, lack of raw materials, standard of specifications, no clear subsidized policy, and farmers’ lack technology.     

Influence of precipitated silica on dynamic mechanical properties and resistance to oil and thermal aging in CPE/NR blends

Blends of 80/20 CPE/NR filled with various silica loadings were prepared, and their properties were determined. It was found that cure properties are influenced significantly by the addition of precipitated silica. Scorch time and cure time decrease with increasing silica loading, which could be explained by the thermal history attributed to the shear heating in the blending stage. An increase in crosslink density as a function of silica loading is believed to be caused by a migration of curatives to the NR phase. In terms of phase morphology, with increasing silica loading, the NR dispersed phase size decreases due to the increase in compound viscosity and, thus, the shear stress available for efficient blending. An increase in silica loading also enhances resistance to oil due to the decrease in the NR dispersed phase size associated with the dilution effect, but gives no significant impact on thermal aging resistance. According to the change in damping peak height associated with the shift in T_g of the CPE phase, silica appears to preferentially migrate to the CPE phase due to the strong interaction between CPE and silanol groups of the silica surfaces. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 96: 2218–2224, 2005     

Rheological properties,oil, and thermal resistance in sulfur‐cured CPE/NR blends

The use of natural rubber (NR) for partly substituting elastomeric chlorinated polyethylene (CPE) was carried out. Sulfur curing was used to vulcanize NR phase in the blends. Mechanical, rheological, and thermal aging properties as well as oil resistance of the blends were investigated. The amount of NR in blends significantly affects properties of the blends. With NR content in blends up to 20 wt %, tensile properties are similar to those of the pure CPE, even after either oil immersion or thermal aging. Rheological properties of CPE/NR blends determined from the rubber process analyzer (RPA 2000) and parallel‐plate rheometer are controlled strongly by the blend composition. The viscoelastic behavior of pure CPE and the blends with CPE as a major component is governed by the viscous response, which could be seen from the high damping factor, particularly at high strain, the short linear viscoelastic range, and the high degree of pseudoplasticity. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 93: 1129–1135, 2004     

Solar energy system reduces time taken to inhibit microbial growth in soil

This research studied how to reduce the time consumption and to increase and improve the efficiency of the solarization process. The asymmetry compound parabolic concentrator (ACPC) was developed to produce boiling water to be utilized while the solarization process was in operation. This could decrease the time consumed in the solarization process from 4 to 6 weeks to 4 h, with a temperature of approximately 41.25 °C at the various depth levels, not exceeding 50 cm. The test to inhibit the growth of Ralstonia solanacearum, the causative agent of wilt in crops leaves, indicated that R. solanacearum was reduced from the total bacterial population of 10.9 × 10⁸ colony forming unit/g soil (cfu g^?1) at soil surface to 9.0 × 10⁷, 7.5 × 10⁴ and 4.1 × 10³ cfu g^?1 within 1, 2 and 4 h, respectively.     

Effects of three parameters on forming force of the single point incremental forming process

This research has examined the effects of three parameter groups on the forming force of single point incremental forming (SPIF) process. The parameters under study include the material types (sheet aluminum, brass and copper), the forming angles (30°, 40° and 50°), and the tool revolution speeds (200, 400 and 600 rpm). The metal forming was carried out using a spherical edge tool which was pressed onto the metal surface to form work pieces of truncated pyramid shape. In the experiment, the forming forces were measured and analyzed to determine an optimal parameter combination, with regard to the material type, forming angle and revolution speed, for the SPIF process. The experimental results showed that all three parameter groups exerted varying influences over the forming force of the SPIF process. The findings indicated that the sheet brass exhibited the highest force value and that the smaller forming angle contributed to the greater forming force. In addition, the higher tool revolution speed resulted in the lower forming force.

     

Inhibitory Activities of Cyanidin and Its Glycosides and Synergistic Effect with Acarbose against Intestinal α-Glucosidase and Pancreatic α-Amylase

Cyanidin and its glycosides are naturally dietary pigments which have been indicated as promising candidates to have potential benefits to humans, especially in the prevention and treatment of diabetes mellitus. We investigated the structure activity relationships of cyanidin and its glycosides to inhibit intestinal α-glucosidases and pancreatic α-amylase in vitro. The results found that cyanidin and its glycosides are more specific inhibitors of intestinal sucrase than intestinal maltase. Cyanidin-3-galactoside and cyanidin-3-glucoside were the most potent inhibitors against intestinal sucrase and pancreatic α-amylase with IC(50) values of 0.50 ± 0.05 and 0.30 ± 0.01 mM, respectively. Our findings indicate that the structural difference between glucose and galactose at the 3-O-position of cyanidin was an important factor for modulating the inhibition of intestinal sucrase and pancreatic α-amylase. The combination of cyandin-3-glucoside, cyanidin-3- galactoside or cyanidin-3,5-diglucosides with a low concentration of acarbose showed synergistic inhibition on intestinal maltase and sucrase. The synergistic inhibition was also found for a combination of cyanidin or cyanidin-3-glucoside with a low concentration of acarbose. The findings could provide a new insight into a use for the naturally occurring intestinal α-glucosidase and pancreatic α-amylase inhibitors for the prevention and treatment of diabetes and its complications.     

Carbon dioxide stripping in ceramic hollow fibre membrane contactors

Ceramic hollow fibre membrane contactors have been applied to carbon dioxide stripping from monoethanolamine (MEA) solution at high temperature where most polymeric membranes would fail to operate. The experimental results show that the membrane contactors are immune from hydrodynamic problems, such as flooding and loading, since the gas and liquid phases can totally be separated by the hollow fibre membranes. The height of transfer unit (HTU) of the contactor was determined to be as low as 15 cm and is dependent on the fluid velocities. The mass transfer coefficients were theoretically predicted and found to be within a reasonable deviation. The mass transfer resistance in the liquid phase was found to be the majority of the total resistance.     

Cure retardation of peroxide‐cured silica filled natural rubber influenced by organosilane

The influence of silane coupling agent on properties of silica‐filled compounds under peroxide curing was investigated. bis (triethoxysilylpropyl) tetrasulfide (TESPT) was selected in this study and its content was varied from 0 to 12% w/w of silica. It is found that with increasing TESPT content, bound rubber content, tensile strength, elongation at break and tear strength are enhanced. By contrast, magnitude of Payne's effect, modulus at 100% elongation (M₁₀₀) and heat build‐up are decreased. The changes of such properties are attributed to the reduction of crosslink density in conjunction with the improvements of both rubber–filler interaction and degree of filler dispersion with increasing TESPT content in the peroxide curing system. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 59:42–48, 2019. © 2018 Society of Plastics Engineers